GOING FROM ROOM TO ROOM BY MILTON ERICKSON

I asked a student, “How do you get from this room into that room?” He answered, “First you stand up. Then you take a step . . .” I stopped him and said, “Name all the possible ways you can get from this room into that room,” He said, “You can go by running, by walking; you can go by jumping; you can go by hopping; by somersaulting. You can go out that door, go outside the house, come in another door and into the room. Or you could climb out a window if you want to . . .”

I said, “You said you would be inclusive but you made an omission, which is a major omission. I usually illustrate, first, by saying, ‘If I want to get into that room from this room, I would go out that door, take a taxi to the airport, buy a ticket to Chicago, New York, London, Rome, Athens, Hong Kong, Honolulu, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, come back by limousine and go in the back yard and then through the back gate into the back door and into that room.’ And you thought only of forward movement! You didn’t think of going in backwards, did you? And you didn’t think of crawling in.” The student added, “Or of sliding on my stomach either.”